Author: Aidan Durnin

The SCA Ireland Chapter is proud to announce that we’re holding a calibration judging workshop on the 11th and 12th of December!

The course will run over the two days (Monday and Tuesday) in the Coffee Culture training studios (Dublin) and will be taught by WCE representative John Stubberud who is a certified sensory judge for the World Barista and Brewers Cup 2015-2017 and registered REP for the World Championships Events.

Normally to complete a workshop like this would cost around €200 but at SCA Ireland we are supporting our Judges and their training requirements so the Irish Chapter is taking the cost. To avail of this free education from a highly respected European coffee expert, people must commit to judging the semifinals and finals of the Irish Barista Championship and Irish Latte Art Championship (January/February in Dublin) and the finals of the Irish Brewers Cup (March in Belfast)

We’re looking for new and old judges to take part in the workshop so if you think you have what it takes to judge coffee at a national level please get in touch at comms@scae.ie

Following the recent announcement by the WCE detailing where and when the 2018 Cezve/Ibrik Championship, World Brewers Cup, World Cup Tasters Championship and World Coffee Roasting Championship are taking place, the SCA Ireland Chapter committee felt it important to state their position on the decision.

The SCA Ireland Chapter Committee strongly disagree with the recent WCE decision to host competition finals in Dubai. The UAE’s record on human rights abuses against LGBTIQ citizens is completely at odds with the underlying foundations that the SCA was built upon.

We are deeply unhappy with the incredibly poor communication from SCA both in volume, content and direction. This significantly added to the difficulty and unhappiness worldwide.

We would like SCA to ensure complete openness and transparency in all future decisions relating to hosting competitions worldwide. The most important asset in our organisation are our members and this should be reflected in the decisions and actions of those in SCA/WCE who make decisions.

We will continue to hold our National Competitions and support our Champion if they decide whether they wish to attend the World Finals. In the case of a Champion deciding not to travel we will not be sending another competitor in their place.

As some of you are lucky enough to be heading to Budapest in the next two weeks to support our Irish Cup Tasters, Brewers Cup and Latte Art champions, we asked our soon to be departing Judges Coordinator Anita Bartok to put together some recommendations for the city.

You’ll notice that there aren’t many coffee recommendations listed below and this is because there will be a speciality coffee shop map at the World Of Coffee.

Stand25 bistro (https://stand25.hu) Tamas Szèll owns the place who was the winner of Bocus d ‘or 2016

And on Váci street there are many Hungarian restaurants and they are all very good they all serve typical Hungarian dishes

For must visit places Anita recommends the following:

Buda castle

Heroes square

Citadelle

Vaci street

Parliament

Fishermen’ Bastei

If there is time the turkish baths or Széchènyi bath (With all natural spring water!) are amazing.

Anita has also asked us to pass on her thanks to all the members who worked with her over the years and to please say hello if they see her in Budapest this summer. Anita and her family are returning home to Hungary to start a new coffee roastery and training centre. From everyone in SCA Ireland we wish her the best of luck as she will be surely missed!

To Renata Khedun (Latte Art), Reda Matiejune (Cup Tasters) and Stephen Houston (Brewers Cup) we wish you all the best and hope that the luck of the Irish will be on your side! Hopefully you’ll be able to hear those that can’t make it cheer from home and those who can will be right there making the most noise.

A weekend that will be hard to beat.

We recently found ourselves in a predicament when faced with what was the largest number of competitors to date. With 25 people registered, we had to figure out exactly how everybody was going to fit into the compact venue of the Cloud Picker Roastery. Weeks before the competition, we visited Frank and Peter to discuss the competition but each time we deliberated over the fact that the venue was going to be too small, but we couldn’t have been more wrong!

For 3 days the Cloud Picker facility was handed over to SCA Ireland to host the IBrC 2017 competition. With a marquee erected over the preparation area, the brand new Sanremo Café Racer for all the baristas to try, as well as an endless supply of amazing food (Pickler) and beers (White Hag) for every single judge, volunteer, competitor and visitor, there was nothing spared. The Cloud Picker team made sure that every single person left with amazing memories – Thank you guys.

Over the 2 days of the competition a range of amazing coffees were consumed by the team of national judges. From V60’s to Kalita’s to Aeropress every competitor showed an ever-increasing level of brewing skill and customer service. From a final 19 competitors who took part six went through to the finals on Sunday 23rd of April. The finals saw another step-up in performance levels from the six competitors who engaged with the judges and the audience showing that they were experts in coffee brewing.

Finally, the winner of the IBrC 2017 was announced as Stephen Houston from Bailies Coffee Roasters in Belfast. Using Kalitas and a natural Colombian from Finca Morte Verde, that he roasted himself, he became the 2017 Irish Brewers Cup champ. In second place was Aliona Budan (Fumbally) using a natural Panaman from Verve Coffee with Kalitas and in third place was Julia McKenna (Bailies) who used the winning roast as well but through v60s.

Stephen competing – IBrC2017 – Picture by Bailies Coffee Roasters

The Thank You’s

On behalf of SCA Ireland we want to send a big thank you to the national judges and WCE representative, Michael McCauley, and a special thank you to Anita our head judge who leaves Ireland in June.

Thank you to Frank, Peter, Tom and the entire Cloud Picker team for hosting this event and for looking after everyone so well.

Thank you to the support of Ian & Timea who kept the baristas on their toes and made sure the competition went smoothly.

In addition, thank you to every competitor for taking part in this year’s IBrC. Without each one of you there would be not competition of any sort.

Signing off for this year’s competitions and see you all towards the end of the year for the next round of competitions.

There is currently an exciting opportunity to volunteer as a calibration barista for the World Brewers Cup, Latte Art Championship, Coffee in Good Spirits and Cezve/Ibrik in Budapest this year.

SCA and World Coffee Events are currently looking for seasoned competitors to perform 2-3 full competition routines for WCE judges and will receive feedback from them afterwards.

They’re particularly interested in national competition finalists and other experienced competitors, however it is necessary that all calibration baristas have no conflicts with any of the competitors in Budapest.